The deal between Atari, the publisher of Driv3r and Dragon Ball Z, and Infogrames came about one month after the resignation of Atari board member Thomas Mitchell, who left amid concerns that the two publicly traded companies were too closely tied.

Infogrames owns about 52 percent of Atari, and Bruno Bonnell serves as chief executive and chairman of both companies.

Atari said the Humongous assets consist primarily of intellectual property, existing inventory and license rights.

Some $2 million of the purchase price represents prepayment of future costs that Atari will incur from platform royalty advances, manufacturing costs and milestone payments, it said.

Atari also said it has been granted exclusive distribution rights for Humongous products in the United States, Canada and Mexico through at least March 2006.